A gallon size polyethylene terephthalate (xe2x80x9cPETxe2x80x9d) plastic bottle for juice or other beverage commonly has attached at its neck a separately molded bail type handle to aid the consumer in lifting the container and pouring the contents. These handles are manufactured from a flexible plastic, and are attached by means of a tightly fitting ring that fits into a recessed groove in the neck of the bottle. The high speed application of these handles to empty bottles requires expensive capital equipment and considerable physical space. Moreover, not all subsequent rinsing, filling, capping, and labeling equipment is compatible with the bottles having a handle already attached.
Other bottle carriers which may be affixed to plastic beverage bottles such as milk jugs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. RE 35,288 entitled xe2x80x9cCarrier Strap for Bottles or Jugsxe2x80x9d and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,271 entitled xe2x80x9cCarrier for Containers.xe2x80x9d These carriers are most notably designed for multiple bottles or jugs. For example, the carrier shown in Borg, RE 35288, is designed to carry two bottles at a time.
Erickson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,729, describes a strap for carrying a single bottle by the neck within a split-ring opening within a frame member. Like other prior art devices, Erickson relies upon a substantially keyhole shaped split collar. Insertion and removal of a bottle is made by forcing open the annular portion of the collar. The bottle carriers are lifted by various means including finger openings in the top of the device or handles which are pivotable upwardly.
What is needed, therefore, is a comfortable, flexible, secure handle that can be applied at high rates with inexpensive equipment to containers that have already been filled, capped and labeled.
The present invention is a bottle carrier for a single bottle including a substantially planar web of material, the web having an annular ring which includes a neck-engaging collar for selectively engaging the neck of a beverage bottle such as a juice bottle or milk jug. The carrier has a handle portion comprising a substantially U-shaped member having handle arms and a grip portion. The handle arms are joined to the annular ring on opposite sides thereof and the handle arms are sized and shaped so as to flex when the bottle is lifted by the handle portion after the neck has been engaged by the collar.
The handle arms have a reinforcing inner rib that extends from the grip portion and tapers off substantially completely prior to an elbow at which each of the handle arms joins the annular ring. The material is thus thinned at the elbow where the arms join the ring thus permitting the handle to flex away from the plane of the web when the bottle is picked up by the handle. The reinforcing inner rib extends along the inside of the grip portion and may include scalloped edges adapted to fit the fingers of a user.
The neck-engaging collar may be frustoconically shaped so that it may be snapped down from the top over the neck of the bottle. The collars yields as the annular ring is pushed down over the neck. Since the cone of the collar points upward once the collar is engaged, it is resistant to slippage due to the weight of the bottle.
The foregoing and other. objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.